Hill Has Bedeviled Feeling and Angels Can’t Help Him

There was only one person more frustrated than Angel hitters Saturday night. That was their pitcher.

For all the work Ken Hill put in, there was little to show for it and nothing to do but slump in his chair in the clubhouse. He had pitched his best game this season, which ended up a 3-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in front of 36,939 at Edison Field.

It was a little more than bad luck. Devil Ray pitcher Tony Saunders, just recalled from the minors, gave up three hits and one unearned run through eight innings. Angel hitters flailed at his changeup and were caught flat-footed by his fastball. Their lone run came on a single by Mo Vaughn--who else?--and their last big chance was snuffed out with Vaughn on deck.

Frustrated? Hill was willing to offer a trade-off in hindsight.

“I would rather pitch bad and win,” Hill said. “That’s the bottom line, winning. It’s frustrating. I kept us in the game.”

Saunders took the Angels out of it.

Hill wasn’t pointing fingers at his teammates, merely stunned at pitching so well and receiving so little for it. He went 7 2/3 innings, giving up three runs. But everything he did, the left-handed Saunders did better.

Quite a feat, considering he entered the game with a 8.67 earned-run average. Saunders, the first player the Devil Rays took in the 1997 expansion draft, had pitched so poorly this season that he had been farmed out to triple-A Durham on May 3.

He returned Thursday and was back on the a major league mound Saturday. It didn’t look like a choice assignment.

The Angels were 5-1 against left-handed pitchers this season. That didn’t even include the beating they gave New York Yankee pitcher Andy Pettitte, who gave up six runs in five innings but got a no-decision Tuesday.

“Our left-handed hitters just hit left-handers,” Manager Terry Collins said. “I don’t have the answer for it.”

Saunders did.

He struck out seven, including Tim Unroe three times. He retired 13 consecutive batters at one point. Roberto Hernandez pitched the ninth inning for his 13th save.

“Earlier in the season, I was thinking about things too much,” Saunders said. “All I thought about tonight was going pitch-by-pitch, batter-by-batter and out-by-out”

It worked. The only run the Angels scored was after a third-inning error by shortstop Kevin Stocker. Vaughn cashed it in with a two-out single to center to score Andy Sheets for a 1-0 lead. Vaughn, who matched his career-high with six RBIs Friday, has driven in 12 runs in the last five games.

Stocker made up for his mistake in the eighth and denied Vaughn a chance to pad that total.

Matt Walbeck doubled to lead off and, one out later, Darin Erstad grounded a ball toward center. Stocker dived to stop it. Erstad reached on an infield hit, but the play kept Walbeck from scoring.

With Vaughn on deck, Randy Velarde hit a sharp grounder to Stocker, who stepped on second and threw to first for the double play.

Hill had walked on the wild side, with 33 bases on balls in 40 innings this season. He had things pretty much under control Saturday, except for the fourth inning, and that cost him a run.

Jose Canseco opened the inning by rolling a single into center. Hill then walked Fred McGriff and Herbert Perry. One out later, John Flaherty hit a busted-bat dribbler to Velarde. Perry stopped a few feet away, making Velarde come to him for a tag. Velarde’s flip to first was too late to get Flaherty and the run scored.

Perry drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, scoring Canseco, in the sixth for a 2-1 lead. He then doubled off the center-field fence, driving in Quinton McCracken in the eighth, for a 3-1 lead.

That ended Hill’s evening.

“Ken Hill was just outstanding,” Collins said. “He pitched a great game.”

And left frustrated.